M14 Forum

commostud

Hello,
I am asking advice for what I am planning to do. I would like to start building my next rifle. I am looking at building a G3 clone or a M1 Garand. Either way I am looking at buying the tools. Welder and hydrolic press for the g3 clone, or the barrel vise and receiver wrench for the m1. I want to do the work to build it myself. With the g3 the parts are cheap and the magazines are also CHEAP to buy. I have 60 of them. On the other hand, if I were to build a m1 in 308 I would like to do a short barrel version like Shuffs Parkerizing can do. I am leaning towards the m1 due to the common parts with my garand and m1a that I have. And the brass that you use on the g3 gets creased, don't like that part. The receivers are about the same price for either one. So please give me some insight on what you think I should do.

Thanks
Jason

Phil McGrath

It is very easy too wrap up alot of money into a custom build, bolt gun or semi-auto. when I'm thinking about a build its never about the cost its the end result, the budget just takes alot longer for the funds too build up. A part here and there really helps and some wheeling and dealing at shows if you know what your looking at is fairly priced helps.


What do you want too build? make a decision and start hunting parts.

commostud

I am not trying to spend alot. The receiver for the G3 clone is 200 buck with out trunion. Plus I found a complete parts kit for about $450 without the receiver and with the trunion. I know that CMP has m1 receivers for about 200 bucks apiece and I found another dealer who has them for also 200 bucks. I then just need to source parts and a 308 barrel. I want it to be a brush gun. Either way I go I want a 16" barrel and 308. With the possibility of a folding stock/retracting stock.

This would be a great truck/brush gun. I only need 300 to 400 meter accuracy.

Phil McGrath

From the sounds of things you can get a G3 like clone up and running for little money, is it possable for you too put one together add a few mags from your stash and sell it for a little profit? too offset the cost of the rifle you want to build.

Currently, there is no way you can build a tanker like M1 rifle in .308 with a folding stock for less money, even if you found a clapped out Fed-Ord rifle and slapped it in a folding stock.

tmcfalls

Wouldn't it be illegal to sell the G3 to someone else under the ATFs regulations, unless he has the correct FFL to manufacture firearms?

huntinghawk

Unless you have access to a machine shop, you are barking up the wrong tree to do it yourself. Paying a pro to do it right would be alot cheaper then just the basic hand tools you would need.

JMO,
HH

Phil McGrath

Well, I suspose its all in how you look at things, I don't figure buying parts and putting a rifle together makes one a firearms manufacturer, case in point you buy a striped AR/15 lower when you do, you fill out a 4473 because the ATF views that one single item as the firearm, everything else thats needed to be attached to make it function is along for the ride.

Is everyone that built a M1a from a receiver and later sold it and built another rifle more too his liking a Firearms Manufacturer? a firearms reassembler? or firearms modifier? In my view there is a differance if your doing it full time and making a living at it vrs the hobbiest at home or a shooter helping there buds.

I could be 100% wrong and you could be 100% correct, if I am wrong so be it. I know many other guys that have done what I have done without regret.

commostud

The G3 receiver is completely made so I have to have it shipped to a FFL. So it is like a ar-15 in that respect. It is a Semi-auto Receiver. The only difference between a real G3 and a semi only receiver is the shelf that the trigger assembly attaches to. That is it. I could buy the flat and fitments for about $120 and then the parts kit for $450. But then I need a welder, 12ton press and jig kit to be able to make the receiver.

The m1 garand receiver the only tools that I need (I think) is the receiver wrench and barrel vise.

So with that the m1 would be cheaper, but I could use the tools for both so I can build both. But after doing research and my desires, I am leaning towards the m1 and getting it shortened to 16 inches.

I will keep buying the g3 mags. Buy them cheap and stack them deep. They will be valuable some day.

The garand uses the clip and i like my garand and the classic "PING". Love that sound.

Chilly

I think G3 is a turd. A home-built G3 will always be suspect if you ever want to sell it. Hard to hose up a Garand. Expensive to shorten, which I never fully understood. I'd like a short Garand, but can't justify spending $1000 to shorten a $750 rifle.

Hamstrosity

You'd also need timing gauges and a level (my friend uses machinests bubble levels with his timing gauges) to know when you've tightened the barrel enough, then you'd need headspace gauges at the minimum to know where you stand with your barrel/bolt configuration. Most new barrels will need to be reamed, so you'd need the reamer bit, rod, and handle. Also you'd need cutting fluid for the reamer.

If you want to go short on a M1 Garand, you'll need a modified op rod and spring as well. That probably wont' be very easy to come by.

Those are just the things that come to mind. I've been putting a parts list together, but that's because I have 3 M14 types and a 2 M1 projects lined up that I'm gonna build.. I wanted to try building one myself, after watching my 1st one get built and the tools to do it came out to just short of a grand ($800 and something if I remember correctly). Figure I'll get my money back out of DIY, unless I mess something up.

Don't know too much on the G3 type, as far as building one, can't talk a lot about that.

Hamstrosity

The feeling I got when I asked my friend about a DIY project was if you're doing one rifle, it doesn't make a lot of sense, since the tools needed would far exceed the cost of having a smith build it.

That said, I also understand the I want to do it myself thing. That's one of the reasons I'm doing it..

Jgun

As stated above, if You buy a stripped receiver with serial number, you have to go through FFL (if from out of state) and that is considered a gun, so would be resellable. If, on the other hand you bought an 80% receiver, or unbent receiver flat, You are building from scratch and cannot legally sell it AFAIK. I don't know much about the G3 but I looked into the shorty M1's because I'd love to build one. I believe that besides the shorter barrel, you would have to purchase a special shortened op rod, which would make the M1 build probably more expensive. It seems to me that these are two very different guns, as also stated above, I think that you should decide which type of gun you really want, because after all of the work to build either one, the price difference will not seem as important as shooting the gun you actually want. If it's only a question of money, you should look for a good deal on a used example of the gun you really want and save yourself all the work of building one.

Gus Fisher

I have never built a G3, so I am staying away from talking about them.

I don't think you realize what it takes in tools and knowledge to build a Garand from scratch, let alone the MUCH more difficult to build Tanker and get it to function. I have been working Garands for almost 40 years and I want no part of building Tankers from scratch. Everyone who builds Tankers does it their own way and NO op rods or some other parts will work on anyone else's Tanker. That's part of the reason they are a PITA to work on, let alone build.

CMP once again has .308 Garand barrels at the very best price going. I just checked the E Store and it seems they may be temporarily out of them, but they most likely will have them again.

You could save a LOT of money by buying the barrel and have a gunsmith mount and chamber the barrel and then do the rest of the work yourself. If not, be prepared to spend well over $ 500.00-600.00 for a pull through chamber reamer, headspace gages, a barrel vise and receiver wrench and more tools you will need to build a Garand from scratch. It MIGHT make sense to do the Garand in .30-06 as you would use the reamer and gages a WHOLE lot more on other Garands than in .308. Of course, you could use the .308 Garand stuff to work on commercial M14's.

Honestly, I would most strongly advise against buying the tools and gages to mount and chamber barrels until you find out from experience if you really like to do the work and will do enough of the work in the future to justify the expense.

tmcfalls

Building a rifle from parts with a receiver made by a licensed firearms maker makes it completely legal to sell. The sticking point is where a person actually manufactures the receiver themselves such as bending an AK or HK flat instead of purchasing a receiver that has to be transferred on 4473 form. If he buys a pre-bent G3 receiver he will be perfectly fine to sell it later.

Gus Fisher

The only thing one used to have to worry about (besides liability of course) when assembling a firearm from a receiver was paying the Federal Excise Tax. However since 2005, the law was changed in that one can now assemble up to 50 firearms without having to pay the tax.

http://www.ttb.gov/firearms/faet-faq...ral-_-Treasury

You still have a liability interest when you assemble a firearm and sell it, though.